Marci Alboher wrote about an approachfeatured by Michael Melcher in his blog(October 2, 2007) and book for finding out what direction you might want your career to proceed.

It involves “creating and evaluating a Right-Brain File…” “This is a way to collect data that you aren’t ready to process. It is based on the premise that applying your analytical skills, alone, won’t get you the life you want.”

The two authors present different strategiesfor conducting your Right-Brain File. Melcher, the book author, suggests creatinga file and collect anything that tickles your fancy into it. It could be an article, a photo, a travel brochure, an email, an overheard snatch of dialogue.

His “Right-Brain File consists mainly of articles, but that’s just [him] me.” What you “put into your Right-Brain File

“Later, once your file has grown, take a look at what you’ve collected. What do you see? Any patterns, inspirations, insights? What you have is a record of what your right brain—the intuitive, associative, non-logical part of you—has noticed. It’s been noticing things, even if you haven’t been able to put words around it. Indeed, sometimes avoidingputting words around your impulses is one of the best ways to let them develop.”

Marci Alboher suggests learning frompeople who know you and are in different parts of your life. To set up the interviews, create a short questionnaire (six to eight questions) with questions like:

* What are three things I do really well?* What are three things I don’t do so well?* Based on what you know about me, what job or experience have I liked the best in the past?* Based on what you know about me, what job or experience have I liked the least?* What are three things you can imagine me doing?* What’s something you can’t really imagine me doing?* How do I get in my own way?”

Now, I have collected a lifetime of interesting articles but have neverthought to review them. Maybe thereis something there?

One Response to “Mentoring 5. “Right brain profiling””

“For most of us, our goals are partly our own design and partly the internalization of messages about who we should be or what we should want.

Consider a few common “shoulds”: • “I should make as much money as my business school classmates.” • “I should be a public-interest lawyer.” • “I’ve devoted a lot of years to my specialty, so I shouldn’t give it up now.” • “I should stay home with my children.” • “I should stick it out in my awful job rather than disrupting my family’s lives.” • “I should watch compelling foreign films instead of America’s Most Smartest Model.”

Shoulds are fine if they take us in directions that are true to our personal values. But when they represent someone else’s values rather than our own, or reflect an earlier version of ourselves that is no longer relevant, they are a problem.

Unexamined shoulds can set us down a path that will not serve us (“Everyone’s getting into hedge funds so I’d better not get left behind”) or they can block us from taking positive action (“I want to try something more entrepreneurial but I shouldn’t disrupt my family’s life”). Part of meaningful career growth is periodically making sure that your shoulds work for you. Interrogating your shoulds doesn’t mean denying them totally – they often have an aspect of truth to them. But it does mean holding them up to the light and developing a more sophisticated understanding of what they mean.

In other words, don’t just accept shoulds at face value. Here’s a simple but powerful exercise. First, write out 10 “should” statements that relate in some way to your career. It’s easier than you think. Just start writing, “I should . . .” and see what comes out. Once you’ve written your shoulds, take a moment to reflect on who is actually speaking. Your mother? Your college roommate? Your spouse? The New York Times Op-Ed page? You, circa 1991? If any particular names come to mind, jot them down next to the appropriate statements. Finally, focus on four or five of the “should” statements that grab you. (I often feel a kind of tension in my gut for the heavy shoulds — like “you should be as impressive as the people in the alumni magazine.”) Now, restate your shoulds by writing longer versions about what is true and what is not true about them.

Here are a couple of examples. “Should” statement: “I should stay home with my children.” Restated “should” statement: “I love my children and am a good parent. But that doesn’t mean I want to stay home with my kids. I would rather be a positive example of how to balance family and career.” “Should” statement: “Since I spent all those years getting a Ph.D. in anthropology, I should be working as a professor rather than in public relations.” Restated “should” statement: “I enjoyed school and am proud of how it opened my mind. But I know enough about academia to know that it’s not for me, and I really enjoy the pace of my job and the interactions I have with people.” After you’ve restated your shoulds, keep them around.

Review them from time to time. It takes time and attention to rewrite our internal scripts, but it can be done. Once you do, you’ll be freer to focus your energy on what you really want, and who you really are.”